Asian studies: Selected internet links

The following pages provide links to other institutions in the United Kingdom and overseas with an interest in Asian studies, or associated with the India Office Records. The links are collected into three categories, namely, Asian Studies: General, Linguistic/Geographic groups - Jewish Studies, Middle East, South Asian, Southeast Asian, East Asian - and Archives of the East India Company/India Office.

Bodleian Library, Oxford University - main research library in Oxford and also a legal deposit library. Bodleian has several dependent libraries, including the Oriental Institute Library, the Eastern Art Library, Bodleian Japanese Library and the Indian Institute Library

Cambridge University Library - also one of the legal deposit libraries of the UK, with excellent collections of Oriental materials. The link provides direct access to its main on-line searching catalogue: WWW catalogue

Mapping Asia - a database for resources in all subject areas of the humanities and social sciences relating to Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, with collection descriptions and search facility of newspaper holdings in UK libraries.

Moving Here - images of library, archive and museum collections relating to the migration of South Asian, Caribbean, Irish and Jewish people to England.

National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London - the National Art Library (NAL) is both a major reference library and the Victoria and Albert Museum's curatorial department for the art, craft and design of the book. The library has substantial collections of publications on Oriental art and craft, e.g. textiles, ceramics, calligraphy

British Museum - the Museum's extensive Asian collections date from the earliest civilizations (c.5000BC). The website serves as major educational tool for schools and Orientalists alike

Asian Studies: USA

Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) - an interactive electronic atlas of the world from which selected data from regions, eras and disciplines can be accessed. Based in Berkeley, has branches in Europe and Asia. The British Library is the ECAI centre for Europe.

Middle East: Arabic/Arab world

Arab world internet resources

UK libraries with Arabic collections

Apart from the British Library, the UK university libraries with substantial holdings of materials relevant to the study of the Arab world include: Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, London), St Andrews and Westminster. The holdings of these libraries can be searched in the Copac National, Academic, & Specialist Library Catalogue.

Books, booksellers, ejournals : culture

Literary and cultural website: includes extensive links to websites of Egyptian and Arab authors and literature corner with extensive selection of poetry and short stories in Arabic and in translation.

South Asia through Official Eyes - mapping the national collection of South Asian official publications. A joint project hosted by the Bodleian Library and funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme.

Harvard-Yenching Library - one of the most important libraries in the US with comprehensive coverage of East Asian subjects. Provides various online resources for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and direct links to major libraries in Asia

Bodleian Library, Department of Oriental Collections - includes Oriental Institute Library, Eastern Art Library, Japanese Library and Institute for Chinese Studies Library. Also the main host of the CJK online Research Support Libraries Programme in the UK. See below

Cambridge University Library - a substantial collection of Chinese books and MSS including over 4,300 volumes of the 18th-19th centuries printed books donated by Sir Thomas Wade and 800 oracle bones bequeathed by L.C.Hopkins

Department of East Asian Studies, Durham University Library- the library has a small collections of manuscripts and papers of oriental (Middle and Far East) interest as well as some archival materials. The website also provides online exam paper reviews, course reviews, and a small number of Chinese and Japanese electronic journals

University of Sheffield Library - holds some 50,000 items on East Asia, in English and in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. A wide range of databases, e-journals and e-books is also available. Subject coverage is principally of modern history, social sciences, language, literature and religion.

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) - provides access to official documents selected from three archival institutions, i.e. National Archives of Japan, The Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Library of the National Institute for Defence Studies and the National Defence Agency. The materials, spanning from the Meiji era to the end of the Pacific War, mainly concern Japan's past relationship with various neighbouring Asian countries and regions.

Major archive resources in connection with the East India Company / India Office Records are as follows:

The National Archives - launched in April 2003, and brings together two existing organisations, the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission (see below). The former Public Record Office has a wide range of records relating to the East India Company under the following departmental and subject headings: Admiralty, Board of Trade, Civil Service Commission, Colonial, Foreign, Home, Privy Council and War Office, House of Lords, Maps and Treasury Board Papers. PRO is also the host of A2A project (=Access to Archives) which aims to create a virtual national archives catalogue. Currently part of the India Office Records lists, the Board's Collections are available through PRO's online catalogue. The website also includes the Family Records Centre

Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge - archive which relates to the economic social and political conditions during the period of British rule in India, Burma and Ceylon: manuscripts, tape-recordings, photographs and home movies.

South Asia through Official Eyes - provides access to the national collection of South Asian official publications. A joint project hosted by the Bodleian Library and funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme.

Mundus Gateway - a guide to more than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials held in the United Kingdom. A joint project hosted by the School of Oriental and African Studies and funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme.

Moving Here - images of library, archive and museum collections relating to the migration of South Asian, Caribbean, Irish and Jewish people to England.

South Asia Archive & Library Group (SAALG) - representatives of libraries, archives in the UK specialised in South Asian Studies meet twice annually for information exchange on collection development

John Rylands University Library of Manchester - various collections of documents relating to the East India Company which include a list of bonds and covenants of EIC (1607-1770) which precedes the OIOC British Library collection of bonds of 1741-1946 (IOR: O/1); also holds the papers of John Charles Mason in connection with the Bombay Marine and the Indian Navy.

Families in British India Society (FIBIS) - formed in November 1998 to provide a resource for people researching families and their social history in India from 1600 up to, and even after, Indian Independence in 1947.Census Information: Surname Index for the Returns of Europeans Residing in Bombay Presidency in 1851

The Indiaman Magazine - a genealogical and historical magazine about the British presence in the Indian Sub-Continent from 1600 to the 20th century. With some useful links of family history search engines.

Provinces of India to 1947 - detailed list of Governors, Chief Commissioners or Chief Ministers in all provinces of British India from ca.1700 to 1947.

Moving Here - images of library, archive and museum collections relating to the migration of South Asian, Caribbean, Irish and Jewish people to England.

Imperial War Museum - Family History Research; also includes: unpublished diaries and memoirs written by officers and other ranks during World Wars I and II; biographical files on persons who received the Victoria or George Crosses; photographs and film footage.

National Army Museum - collections of private, regimental and business archives relating to the history of the British Army, the Indian Army to 1947, and British colonial land forces to relevant Independence dates.

Trek out of Burma 1942 - Transcriptions of files in IOR/M/8/57: list of European, Anglo-Burmese, Anglo-Indian, and other non Indian evacuees, list of casualties, and list of Burmese, Chinese and Shans.

East India Company and India Office: family history research:Institutions without URL

Department for International Development, Abercrombie House, Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 8EA. Tel: +44 (0)1355 844000 - responsible for paying pensions to former employees of the British Indian Government. N.B. These records are mainly confidential and therefore there are restrictions on access. Details of pensioners' addresses will not be divulged but the department will forward any correspondence to them.

Haileybury and Imperial Service College, Haileybury, Hertford, SG13 7NU. Tel: +44 (0)1732 352703 - the home of former East India College. On its closure, the library and records of the East India College were transferred to the British Library although a small proportion has since been returned to Haileybury.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Bancroft Library, 277 Bancroft Road, London E1 4DQ. Tel: +44 (0)20 8980 4366 - some East India Company records (1709-1871) including records of the Poplar Pension Fund, supplementary to those held at OIOC.